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Demonstrably awful: The right to life and the selective non-treatment of disabled babies and young children

UNSPECIFIED.
(2004)
Demonstrably awful: The right to life and the selective non-treatment of disabled babies and young children.
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, 31
(4).
pp. 482-509.
ISSN 0263-323X

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Abstract

Twenty-five years ago it was common practice to bring about the deaths of some children with learning disabilities or physical impairments. This paper considers a small number of landmark cases in the early 1980s that confronted this practice. These cases illustrate a process by which external forces (social, philosophical, political, and professional) moved through the legal system to effect a profound change outside that system - primarily in the (then) largely closed domain of medical conduct/practice. These cases are considered from a socio-legal perspective. In particular, the paper analyses the reasons why they surfaced at that time, the social and political contexts that shaped the judgments, and their legacy.